TikTok was recently banned because of suspicion of the Chinese government collecting data about its users, according to the New York Times. It was banned for 14 hours before becoming usable again in the U.S. However, the app remains unavailable in app stores.
Although it is back, people have been questioning the purposeof the ban. Students at Keene State College shared their negative opinions of the whole situation itself.
Junior Lauren Dombrowski talked about how the ban was unnecessary in the first place and how it meant more than just getting rid of an app.
“I think it’s unfortunate and I think it also has to do with our First Amendment rights and that it’s not really necessary to ban TikTok,” Dombrowski said.
Junior Jesse Santoro also talked about how it isn’t necessary and some of the deeper causes for the actual ban.
“I think it’s silly because they’re saying that they’re banning it because of collecting data whereas Facebook, Instagram all do the same thing, the only difference is that it’s [TikTok] not American,” said Santoro. “I don’t know what valuable data they’re getting from silly cat videos.”
“I think a lot of people are very upset about it. Personally, I don’t care that much. I think we’re too reliant on social media as a whole, and so I think people were really freaked out about it,” said sophomore Amarrah Gates.
Some ways people have escaped the ban have been to change over to other apps, such as RedNote, according to CNN. Some have also resorted to using different American apps with similar features as TikTok, such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.
When asked if students changed over to a different app because of TikTok getting banned from the United States, the answer was usually yes.
“I downloaded YouTube Shorts for the first time but I still have TikTok on my phone,” said Santoro. Gates had also mentioned she had already been using an alternative app.
“I had been using Instagram so I’m continuing to use Instagram, but I didn’t go to RedNote,” said Gates.
Hayley Doda can be contacted at
hayley@kscequinox.com
